Greggs: the silent leader

I used to work with an agency that grouped clients and prospects into three bags: being part of the crowd – a toughly fought marketplace with no clear differentiators, insurgents – people who shake up a market by doing things differently like Direct Line did with branchless banking or Apple with the iPad and leaders – companies or organisations with clear market leadership. Reading an article on Greggs this morning in the Guardian made me realise that the baker known for its cheese-and-onion pasties and good value fresh baguette sandwiches is a silent market leader. I found out that it has more stores than McDonalds and works hard on recycling. Much of the success seems to be down to the authenticity rather than the homogeneity of its retailing strategy and the product. This also seems to be the central driving force in a book that I am reading at the moment called Baked In by Alex Bogusky former creative director at Crispin Porter & Bogusky. The message is the product and the PR is unprompted consumer advocacy.